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NTIS

11/19/1996

Collation

1 diskette

Abstract

The easy-to-use ABEL software evaluates for-profit company claims of inability to afford penalties, clean-up costs, or compliance costs. Violators raise the issue of inability to pay in most of EPA's enforcement actions regardless of whether there is any hard evidence supporting those claims. The program enables Federal, State and local enforcement professionals to quickly determine if there was any validity to those claims. ABEL is a tool that promotes quick settlements by performing screening analyses of defendants and potentially responsible parties (PRP's) to determine their financial capacity. If ABEL indicates the firm can afford the full penalty, compliance or clean-up costs, then EPA makes no adjustments for inability to pay. If it indicates that the firm cannot afford the full amount, it directs the enforcement personnel to review other financial reports before making any adjustments. After analyzing some basic financial ratios that reflect a company's solvency, ABEL assesses the firm's ability to pay by focusing on projected cash flows. The model explicitly calculates the value of projected, internally generated cash flows from historical tax information, and compares these cash flows to the proposed environmental expenditure(s). The software is extremely easy to use. Users are taken through a series of prompts to enter specified data. On screen 'help' information is available at any time.